A
Akasteve
Guest
Hi,
Me and my mate started caving in the summer, basically a climbing trip to Masson Quarry got rained off and while sheltering discovered the mine entrance and yet another obsession, anyway....
We've been all over the place in the mine but can't seem to make it 'fit' the Mine conservation map. How accurate is it and where on the map is the quarry entrance, the quarry boundary doesn't seem to fit the shape of the quarry? I read a post recently that named the shaft with the compressed air pipe as Becks shaft which would make the Crichman old founder shaft the shaft in the rake( or thin high section if thats the wrong word). Is this the case?
Other places of note we've been are the gate into the show cave which i believe to be the entrance into Masson Cavern( steel barred gate with brass Abus lock concreted into the rock).
The Coffin level to coffin level crawl( and out to the other side of the quarry)
Another rake section that you have to chimney across three or four deep pools of water. to a dead end( without diving gear anyway).
The shaft with the leaves, branches, frogs, spiders and (last night )bats in. What is this shaft called?
We also went down to a place last night that had the remains of a dig there, a plastic bucket, pick, three pronged hoe and an old iron ladder, where does this lead to if anywhere?
Also how do you get to the other show cave entrance down in the Carding Nestus mine end, is it possible, is it safe or with the descriptions above have we been near it?
We've also been in a load of other places in between but as we can't read the map very well it's difficult to 'tick off' where we need to explore further.
Also, apart from a brief trip into Devonshire mine a few years ago, this is the only place i have extensively explored so have nothing to compare it against. How difficult and dangerous and what grade would this mine be classed as. It has some relatively small and challenging areas, but has good airflow (i usually take my little low O2 sensor from work with me as well), little water and a relatively straight forward layout, main roadways, large memorable areas, so i can't imagine it being that high a grade.
Anyway, sorry for the length of the post, any answers would be much appreciated though.
Regards
Steve
Me and my mate started caving in the summer, basically a climbing trip to Masson Quarry got rained off and while sheltering discovered the mine entrance and yet another obsession, anyway....
We've been all over the place in the mine but can't seem to make it 'fit' the Mine conservation map. How accurate is it and where on the map is the quarry entrance, the quarry boundary doesn't seem to fit the shape of the quarry? I read a post recently that named the shaft with the compressed air pipe as Becks shaft which would make the Crichman old founder shaft the shaft in the rake( or thin high section if thats the wrong word). Is this the case?
Other places of note we've been are the gate into the show cave which i believe to be the entrance into Masson Cavern( steel barred gate with brass Abus lock concreted into the rock).
The Coffin level to coffin level crawl( and out to the other side of the quarry)
Another rake section that you have to chimney across three or four deep pools of water. to a dead end( without diving gear anyway).
The shaft with the leaves, branches, frogs, spiders and (last night )bats in. What is this shaft called?
We also went down to a place last night that had the remains of a dig there, a plastic bucket, pick, three pronged hoe and an old iron ladder, where does this lead to if anywhere?
Also how do you get to the other show cave entrance down in the Carding Nestus mine end, is it possible, is it safe or with the descriptions above have we been near it?
We've also been in a load of other places in between but as we can't read the map very well it's difficult to 'tick off' where we need to explore further.
Also, apart from a brief trip into Devonshire mine a few years ago, this is the only place i have extensively explored so have nothing to compare it against. How difficult and dangerous and what grade would this mine be classed as. It has some relatively small and challenging areas, but has good airflow (i usually take my little low O2 sensor from work with me as well), little water and a relatively straight forward layout, main roadways, large memorable areas, so i can't imagine it being that high a grade.
Anyway, sorry for the length of the post, any answers would be much appreciated though.
Regards
Steve
